Sept Recovery Month Mtg & Aug Mtg Notes

September Recovery Month
The September BSAN meeting will include a special panel presentation in honor of National Recovery Month. The panel will include members from the local recovery community as they share their personal stories, information about area recovery fellowships, and how being part of a recovery oriented community of care has affected their lives. This panel meeting will be held as a part of BSAN’s regular monthly meeting on Friday, September 25 at 7:30am at the Morganton Community House.

Thirty people were present at the Morganton Community House on Friday, August 27, 2015 for this 7:30am breakfast meeting.

Burke Recovery Board member Jeanne Schwarting offered the invocation.

Joe Marks of Burke Recovery welcomed the group and began the meeting by offering coalition members the opportunity to provide the group with updates on their sectors and in their agencies.

Tristan Killian from Burke Integrated Health announced their Supported Employment (SE) services, helping with people who have mental health and/or substance abuse challenges work towards and procure employment. People must be clients of Burke Integrated Health to receive SE service.

Julie Causby from AccessCare announced that Table Rock pharmacy begin providing Naloxone if a person is prescribed that for overdose prevention by their physicians.

Julie Causby also announced updates on Project lazarus in Wilkes County, where all parts of the schools involved, including drama club, and the creation of a poster and billboards contest to get friendly competition by schools and peer involvement in educating people on the dangers of prescription med misuse.

Joe Marks announced that RxEAP and Underage Drinking Initiative task forces are working on short-and long-range action plans to combat youth drinking and prescription med misuse in Burke County, along with Project Lazarus general prescription med misuse and overdose solutions. The upcoming Underage Drinking Initiative meeting is Wed, Sept 9 at 7:45am. Those who are interested in attending should contact Rhonda Cook at bcacdrcook@gmail.com. The next RxEAP meeting is Tues, Sept 22 at 7:30am. Those who are interested in attending should contact Sarah Dergins at bcacdsarah@gmail.com. Both meetings will be held at Burke Recovery’s offices at 711 West Union Street.

Five churches hosted a health fair called Keep the Temple Healthy at Oak Ridge Baptist Church on Sat, August 8. BSAN initiatives will work to follow up with churches to craft an effective prevention faith message.

The Burke County Schools leadership has offered their full support in getting information from students and getting information to parents as surveys, priorities, support, and parents’ pledges become available for distribution.

September is Recovery Month. City and County leaders will present BSAN and Burke Recovery with proclamations declaring it as such in Morganton, Valdese, and Burke County.

During September, guest Sean Carter, a crash survivor, and his mother will coming to speak to high schools the week of September 14 for “When Sean Speaks” presentations, hosted by Morganton Pilot Club and their supporters.

Burke Recovery will have a booth at Historic Morganton Festival, which will include information about the BSAN coalition and any information that BSAN members would like to share about their prevention and treatment services. Those who are interested in having a display at this booth should contact Chuck Moseley at mose622@charter.net.

Tristan Killian reported to the group on the recent Parents Inspire Prevention leadership training was held on August 17th, where interested parents shared their concern and heard from youth. Priorities from a focus group activity included getting age-appropriate information to parents, as well as getting senior project mentoring support, and ideas on drawing in more parents to getting involved in prevention efforts. He encouraged all who are parents or are in a circle of influence to create change to get involved.

During the Parents Inspire Prevention meeting, it was discussed that another piece of the puzzle is finding healthy activities for youth. Joe Marks introduced community organizer Eliot Lytle as BSAN guest.

Eliot Lytle, co-owner of MESH Design and skater, is the director of the Morganton Skatepark Advisory Council. He has been actively working with Morganton Parks & Rec Department for 6 to 7 months. He informed the group that the ordinances skating are 30 years old. He impressed the need to give youth age 12-18 something to do that is active and safe. Gary Leonhardt at Parks & Rec, the Parks & Rec Foundation and City of Morganton city capital budget committee may be supporting the efforts to build a skatepark, with local fundraising to aid in the project. He discussed problems around the lack of a skatepark, including the illegal nature of skating which marginalizes these youth. A park would be non-staffed, use-at-your-own-risk, would create no additional liability for the city and would be open, plaza-style cement park open 24/7. Eliot answered questions and from the group, including several members’ comments of support for this project.

Karen Nolder, a neonatal nurse from Mission Health, introduced herself as new to the group and wants to talk about opioid withdrawal of infants. Joe Marks asked that she address BSAN at an upcoming meeting.

Jennifer Bagley (emailed her for this) from Broughton Hospital announced recovery fair, more info from her.

Rhonda Cook announced priorities gleaned from the July BSAN meeting and asked that anyone who is interested in getting involved in a Steering Committee for planning BSAN next steps and upcoming meetings, please contact her. Since this meeting, she has set up an online sign-up HERE: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BSANSteering

Rhonda Cook also announced that District Attorney David Learner, our local ALE agent, Burke Recovery, and BSAN have invited all Burke County ABC retail outlets and servers to attend a BARS (Be A Responsible Server) training planned for Tuesday evening, October 6 on campus at WPCC.

The next BSAN meeting will include a special panel presentation in honor of National Recovery Month. The panel will include members from the local recovery community as they share their personal stories, information about area recovery fellowships, and how being part of a recovery oriented community of care has affected their lives. This panel meeting will be held as a part of BSAN’s regular monthly meeting on Friday, September 25 at 7:30am at the Morganton Community House.